NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has awarded four industry team
contracts to conduct initial studies of specific
implementation scenarios for a first Mars sample return
mission that might be launched as early as 2011.

The contracts are valued at $1 million each and are to be
performed over a six-month period.

These studies will formulate a broad suite of potential
solutions to robotically acquiring rock and soil samples from
Mars. NASA will select the best solutions for further
development.

"These studies will help identify potential approaches to
the mission, technology development and demonstration needs,
and the infrastructure required to perform such a mission,"
said Dr. Firouz Naderi, the Mars Program Manager at JPL. "The
studies are an important part of determining potential future
Mars program direction over the next decade given that the
underlying science trajectory for the program calls for the
earliest possible 'informed' Mars Sample Return mission."

JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington D.C. JPL is a division of
the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.